New Detailed Snapshots of Photosynthesis Captured (VIDEO)

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Caption

Berkeley Lab-led research using ultrafast X-ray pulses at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is helping elucidate the machinery responsible for photosynthesis. While commonplace and essential to life on Earth, there is much that is still not fully understood. One of its molecular mysteries involves how a protein complex, photosystem II, harvests energy from light and uses it to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The process generates the oxygen in the air that we breathe.

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SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

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